Singapore Marine Fuel Sales Surge 7.2%

Singapore's marine fuel sales set a monthly record in January
after climbing to 4.606 million tonnes, up 3.2 percent from a
year earlier as vessels coming to the world's largest bunkering
hub loaded larger amounts of bunker fuel per vessel on average,
official data showed.

Compared with the previous month, sales in January were up 7.2
percent, data from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore
(MPA) showed. The number of vessels that called at Singapore
for bunkers fell by 4.4 percent from last year to 3,472 but was
at an eight-month high, MPA data showed.

Vessels calling at Singapore for bunkers loaded larger quantities
of fuel with each ship taking on an average 1,330 tonnes of fuel
in January, slightly below the 1,350 tonne record in November.

Monthly sales of 380-cst high-sulphur fuel oil jumped to a record
high of 3.37 million tonnes in January, up 5 percent from
December and 1 percent higher than the previous record of 3.34
million tonnes in January 2017.

Sales of 500-cst fuel oil were also at a record 980 tonnes in
January, up 10 percent from last year and 26 percent higher than
December.

The record monthly sales figures came despite rising crude oil
prices, which in January lifted the cost of benchmark marine fuel
oil to its highest since late-2014. Singapore became the world's
first port to mandate the use of mass-flow-meters (MFM) at the
start of 2017 and set a record 50.6 million tonnes of marine
fuels sales in the year.